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Welcome to my blog. I am honored to have you visit. I hope you'll find my articles a blessing. I welcome your input and especially comments and questions.

I write as a Christian from Jerusalem, Israel about Biblical subjects.

I am particularly interested in the subjects of children, families, women's issues, corporal punishment, science and nature as these subjects relate to the Holy Scriptures.

For more information, see my website: www.biblechild.com

With every good wish - Samuel Martin

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Excerpt from the book "What was the Mark of Cain?" by Samuel Martin

Excerpt from the book "What was the Mark of Cain?" by Samuel Martin

When
I think of this, I go right back to the story of Cain and Abel. Cain did not
murder Abel.

We
are not told precisely in the book of Genesis when this event happened, but may
we make speculations in this regard? We are told that Cain and Abel were the
first children of Adam and Eve (Genesis 4:1,2). The births of these two
children preceded the birth of Seth who was born in the 130th year
of Adam’s life (Genesis 5:3). This same Seth, the Scripture teaches, produced
his first child. Enoch, at the age of 105 (ibid.,
5:6) We are not told precisely, but could it be that Cain and Abel were born
sometime just after Adam passed his 100th year? We are not told when
Cain was born, but if Cain was born when, for example, Adam was, say 105 years
old, then Abel for the sake of this example, was born at least a year or
perhaps two or even three years later.[1]
You would have Cain becoming 12 in Adam’s 117th year and his
brother, Abel, becoming 11 or 10 (or perhaps 9) in Adam’s 118th or
119th years (or 120th year if there was a three year gap
between the children).[2]

One
of the interesting things about this issue concerning the ages of Cain and Abel
is that we have a source that seems to indicate this. In the Midrash Rabbah it
quotes Lamech, a descendant of Cain, who says the following: “Did ‘I’ slay Abel
who was a man in height, but a child in
years, that my descendants should be exterminated on account of this sin
(the sin of Cain who killed Abel).”[3]
It is interesting that we do find some evidence that seems to point to the
youthfulness of Abel (and also by extension of Cain himself).

Since
we do not have a clear statement in the Bible about the number of years between
these children, we have to look to other sections of the Bible that might help
us to better understand this issue. One thing that can help us perhaps is to
look at other figures in the Bible, particularly in these earlier sections and
look at families and see if we have any clues about the normal spacing of
children in these earlier periods.

Much
of the data is very terse and short, but if we will pay close attention to the
information that we do have, we might just find some clues to help us better
understand what was happening here in this early section of Genesis.

Since
Moses was the writer of this section,[4]
perhaps it makes good sense to look at his life. We are told in the Bible that
Moses had a brother named Aaron and that his brother was three years older than
he was.[5]
In addition, a careful study of the life of Moses’ older sister Miriam will
show that she was born at least six years before Moses was.[6]
We find some evidence in the Bible, which indicates that there may have been a
tendency among the ancient Hebrews to space their children about three years
apart. This is because of the ancient custom of weaning children from the
breast finally at age three.[7]
We find this indicated in other sections of the Bible as well where the
tendency to wait until one child was weaned before seeking to get pregnant
again is referenced. Note what is spoken of the wife of the prophet Hosea:

“Now
when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son.”[8]

The idea of weaning as the chosen
method to “complete” or “ripen” a child is something that is found in the
Hebrew verb (gah-mal) that the word
“to wean” comes from. Strong’s Hebrew Concordance defines this word as “A
primitive root; to treat a person
(well or ill), that is, benefit or requite; by implication (of toil) to ripen, that is, (specifically) to wean: - bestow on, deal bountifully, do (good), recompense,
requite, reward, ripen, serve, wean, yield.” There is a strong tendency to
believe that in the Biblical period, God initially passed down the idea to Adam
and Eve that once you had a baby, it was preferred to “ripen” that child
through breast feeding for just over two years and then a family could think
about adding another child after the previous one had been “ripened.”

Now, since we are not told, can we,
with the information we do have, make some reasonable speculations regarding
the age of Cain when he committed this killing? Naturally, Cain must have been
at least one year older (probably three years is more likely) than his younger
brother Abel, but we are not told precisely how old they were when the killing
took place. Can we, however, make some educated guesses from the Biblical text?
Perhaps.

It
is interesting that in the time of Moses that the death penalty applied to
numerous situations. For example, there was a man who suffered the effects of
capital punishment for gathering sticks on the Sabbath. (Numbers 15:32) This
individual, who died in the book of Numbers, is called a “man” (Hebrew: ish). In light of this issue, it is
seemingly very uncharacteristic (under the circumstances where Cain did kill
Abel) of the LORD that the death penalty was not assigned to Cain. How was it
that this man who committed the crime of working on the Sabbath suffered the
death penalty, but Cain who took a life, did not? Why was this? His offense
seemingly was greater than that of the man who lost his life for picking up
sticks on the Sabbath? After all, he did kill his brother.

We
also have the story of Uzzah at the ark. Uzzah lost his life for reaching out
to steady the ark in violation of the Law,[9]
but once again Cain took a life and received a punishment that does not seem
congruent with the crime? Or did he?

We
have another story in the Bible in this regard. Scripture tells us that the
LORD brought a retribution of capital punishment on Onan due to the fact that
he failed to perform the legal obligation to continue the name of his departed
brother.[10]
Onan, due to his ability to perform this act of “raising up seed to his
brother,” was clearly physically able to perform this task (and there is every
indication from the text that he understood the legal obligation), but failed
to do so, thereby coming under the divine retribution. Now, let us look
practically at how this matter relates to the issue of Cain and the taking of
Abel’s life.

Is
it possible though that Cain did not commit a premeditated murder, but rather
in an episode of youthful rage, his anger got the best of him and he killed his
brother? As sad as this story is, we in the modern world hear horrible stories
of young people who, for one or a hundred reasons, kill one another, but malice
aforethought is absent. These cases today are called “manslaughter.” We in the
modern world are even familiar with terms related to degrees of manslaughter, which
are found in courtroom parlance.[11]
Manslaughter is a very different thing than premeditated murder. Could it be
that Cain’s sin, while a death did indeed take place, was looked on differently
by the LORD?

One
thing that is for certain is the fact that Abel was at least about a year
younger than Cain. In this regard, we ask is it possible that both of them were
under the age of 13? The age of 13 is the time in the life of a young Jewish
male when that “boy” begins the process to becoming a “man” and then he is
obligated to begin keeping all of the commandments (Hebrew: mitzvot) of God.[12]
Could it be that what we are reading here is an incident involving what we
today would call “teenagers? Perhaps the reason the LORD did not demand the
death penalty of Cain was that he had not yet reached the age of
accountability, or, was this a case of negligent homicide or manslaughter? We
cannot say 100% for sure, but we can say this: Cain killed his brother.

Regarding
the age of Cain, the Bible does make one fact clear. All of the events
associated with Cain and Abel took place prior to the time that Cain married
and had his own children. Of this we can be certain because of the indications
mentioned directly in the Biblical text.[13]

[1] Adam and Eve probably had about an equal number of
female children, which must also be considered here.

[2] Note: We have to have Cain and Abel at least
reaching to these ages when we consider the information in the texts about
their taking on the responsibilities of work in tending a field and in taking
care of flocks. Children smaller than these ages could not, under normal
circumstances, take on these duties.

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About Me

Samuel Martin was born in England and is the youngest child of Dr. Ernest L. and Helen R. Martin, who are both Americans. He lived in the UK for the first 7 years of his life before moving to the USA with his family at age 7. He lived in the USA until 2001 when he married a native Israeli and relocated to live in Jerusalem. He and his wife, Sonia, have 2 daughters.
His experience with biblical scholarship began at an early age. His father initiated a program in conjunction with Hebrew Univ. and Prof. Benjamin Mazar, where over a 5 year period, some 450 college students came to work on an archaeological excavation in Jerusalem starting in 1969. Since that first trip, Samuel has visited Israel on 14 different occasions living more than 5 years of his life in the country. He has toured all areas of Israel as well as worked in several archaeological excavations.
Today, he has begun his academic career publishing 2 books dealing with biblical issues.
I write regularly on biblical subjects with a particular interest in children, families, nature, science and the Bible,and gender in the Biblical context.